Gordon Brown has promised he would adopt a more inclusive style as prime minister.
His comments came as he acknowledged a top civil servant's criticism of his "Stalinist ruthlessness" was not what he wanted to hear.
The Chancellor said it was impossible to do the right thing and please everyone all the time following Lord Turnbull's extraordinary attack earlier this week.
But, setting out his stall as prime minister-in-waiting, Mr Brown appealed to voters to understand that he was a family man who understood the challenges facing modern Britain.
Asked about Lord Turnbull's comments, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's not something you want to hear but equally at the same time you accept that these sorts of things happen... You've just got to get on with it."
Mr Brown went on to insist he did not "bear grudges" and that his approach in Number 10 would be different to that he has taken at the Treasury.
"You want to use all the talents of the country," he said. "That's why you've got to be inclusive and you've got to be collegiate and you've got to bring people in.
"When you are making decisions as Chancellor, you've just got to say 'no', but I think when you are talking about these other great issues of the time, one of the things I've realised ... is that you cannot solve these problems without engaging and involving and having onside the people of the country."
The Chancellor, who is widely expected to take over from Tony Blair as prime minister this summer, said Lord Turnbull's criticism was only typical of "what happened" in politics.
Lord Turnbull, a former head of the Civil Service and permanent secretary at the Treasury, told the Financial Times that Mr Brown treated his colleagues with contempt and had a "cynical view of mankind".
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